The idea of this Colloquium came during the XVIIth General Assembly of the I. A. U. at Montreal. The meeting was organized under the auspices of I. A. U. Commission 5 (Documentation and Astronomical Data). The Scientific Organizing Committee consisted of C. Jaschek (chairperson), O. Dluzhnevskaya, B. Hauck (vice chairperson), W. Heintz, P. Lantos, Th. Lederle, J. Mead~ G. Ruben, Y. Terashita, G. Wilkins. The members of this Committee are to be thanked for their devotion to the organization of what turned out to be a very successful meeting. The program was organized so as to cover most of the aspects concerning work with machine readable data. In a certain sense it is the develop ment of the subjects of I. A. U. Colloquium 35 "Compilation, critical evaluation and distribution of stellar data" held at Strasbourg in 1976. The meeting was opened by welcoming addresses delivered by Dr A. Florsch, Director of the Strasbourg Observatory, Prof. H. Curien, President of the European Science Foundation and Prof. W. Heintz, President of I. A. U. Commission 5. The sessions were devoted to the fol lowing subjects : Existing data centers, Data networks, New hardware, Recent software developments, Bibliographical services, Copyright, Editorial policies and nomenclature, Data in astronomy and Data in space astronomy. The different sessions were chaired by G. A. Pilkins, J. Mead, S. Lavrov, W. Heintz, P. Lantos, M. McCarthy, J. Delhaye and G. Westerhout. On July 9. Dr A.

The idea of having a meeting came to the Editors when working on several aspects of galactic Be and B[e] stars. They found that a general summary of the properties of B[e] stars was missing, so that the organiza tion of a first meeting on these objects appeared as very useful. B[e] stars have hydrogen line emission and forbidden [Fe 11] and [0 I] emission lines in their spectra; they are also characterized by a strong IR excess due to circumstellar dust. Having a large amount of extinction in the UV and the visual they have been less frequently observed than other emission line objects. Although about one hundred galactic objects have been classified as B[e], only fif teen or so have been studied in some detail. Besides this, the evolutionary status of these objects is rat her controversial, are they pre-main sequence or stars on the way to become nUclei of planetary nebulae? Other difficult problems appear when considering the relations of these stars with other similar groups, like Herbig AeBe stars, Be, luminous blue variables and the superluminous B[e] stars observed in the Magellanic Clouds. The conference seems timely since large surveys like DENIS and 2Mass, plus new space and new instruments for the micron, millimeter and cen timeter wavelength region will result in the discovery of more stars of this group.

The idea of this Colloquium came during the XVIIth General Assembly of the I. A. U. at Montreal. The meeting was organized under the auspices of I. A. U. Commission 5 (Documentation and Astronomical Data). The Scientific Organizing Committee consisted of C. Jaschek (chairperson), O. Dluzhnevskaya, B. Hauck (vice chairperson), W. Heintz, P. Lantos, Th. Lederle, J. Mead~ G. Ruben, Y. Terashita, G. Wilkins. The members of this Committee are to be thanked for their devotion to the organization of what turned out to be a very successful meeting. The program was organized so as to cover most of the aspects concerning work with machine readable data. In a certain sense it is the develop ment of the subjects of I. A. U. Colloquium 35 "Compilation, critical evaluation and distribution of stellar data" held at Strasbourg in 1976. The meeting was opened by welcoming addresses delivered by Dr A. Florsch, Director of the Strasbourg Observatory, Prof. H. Curien, President of the European Science Foundation and Prof. W. Heintz, President of I. A. U. Commission 5. The sessions were devoted to the fol lowing subjects : Existing data centers, Data networks, New hardware, Recent software developments, Bibliographical services, Copyright, Editorial policies and nomenclature, Data in astronomy and Data in space astronomy. The different sessions were chaired by G. A. Pilkins, J. Mead, S. Lavrov, W. Heintz, P. Lantos, M. McCarthy, J. Delhaye and G. Westerhout. On July 9. Dr A.

The principal purpose of IAU Colloquium No. 35 was to discuss those aspects of the techniques of the compilation, evaluation, and distribution of data that are common to astrometry, photometry and spectrometry of stars and stellar systems. In the announcement of the Colloquium, it was suggested that there would be special emphasis on the techniques of quality control, and on the standards for the presentation of numerical data in both printed and com puter-readable form. As the meeting progressed it became clear that the lack of a standard, unambiguous system for the identifi cation of stellar objects was a source of much confusion and inefficiency in the use of existing data files. This and other such matters were the subject of further discussions by Commission 5 at the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), which was held at Grenoble during the following fortnight, 24 August - 2 September 1976. The proposal for the Colloquium was prepared by J. Jung, who was then Director of the Centre des Donnees Stellaires at Stras bourg, and G. A. Wilkins, Chairman of the IAU Working Group on Numerical Data, and was accepted by the IAU Executive Committee on the recommendation of the President of Commission 5, with the support of Commissions 25, 29 and 45. The Scientific Organising Committee consisted of W. Fricke, B. Hauck, C. Jaschek, J. Jung, B. Kukarkin, P. Lacroute, A. Underhill and G. A. Wilkins (Chair man). The Local Organising Committee consisted of A."

The idea of having a meeting came to the Editors when working on several aspects of galactic Be and B[e] stars. They found that a general summary of the properties of B[e] stars was missing, so that the organiza tion of a first meeting on these objects appeared as very useful. B[e] stars have hydrogen line emission and forbidden [Fe 11] and [0 I] emission lines in their spectra; they are also characterized by a strong IR excess due to circumstellar dust. Having a large amount of extinction in the UV and the visual they have been less frequently observed than other emission line objects. Although about one hundred galactic objects have been classified as B[e], only fif teen or so have been studied in some detail. Besides this, the evolutionary status of these objects is rat her controversial, are they pre-main sequence or stars on the way to become nUclei of planetary nebulae? Other difficult problems appear when considering the relations of these stars with other similar groups, like Herbig AeBe stars, Be, luminous blue variables and the superluminous B[e] stars observed in the Magellanic Clouds. The conference seems timely since large surveys like DENIS and 2Mass, plus new space and new instruments for the micron, millimeter and cen timeter wavelength region will result in the discovery of more stars of this group.

Despite more than one century of observational stellar spectroscopy, the resulting data are not available in an easily accessible format. The necessity of such basic information is greater than ever, because new wavelength regions (ultraviolet, infrared) are now accessible and because modern receivers can only analyze short stretches of spectra, so that a careful pre-selection of strategic elements is mandatory. This book presents a summary of our knowledge of the behavior of all chemical elements identified in stars, based on observations rather than on their interpretations. Whenever possible the behavior is described quantitatively, with the help of equivalent widths in different types of stars, or different ionization stages, for both absorption and emission features. It will be essential to the spectroscopist when confronted with questions like the following: . What is the behavior of europium in metallic line stars or in S-type stars? Are the neutral lines of this element visible, are they strengthened or weakened with regard to normal dwarfs? A huge amount of data has been gathered by experts in the field and presented in a way that will be invaluable to professional astrophysicists, cosmochemists and their students.

The idea of the symposium came during the XVllth General Assembly of the IAU at Montreal. The Working Group on Be stars adopted both the proposal of holding a meeting, and of having it at the Universitats- sternwarte Munich. The meeting was organized under the auspices of IAU Comm. 29 (Stel- lar Spectra) and the sponsorship of Comm. 45 (Stellar Classification). The Scientific Organizing Committee was composed of Mercedes Jaschek (chairman), W. Bonsack, C. de Loore, A. Feinstein, H. G. Groth, P. Harmanec, L. Houziaux, A. M. Hubert-De1p1ace, L. S. Luud, A. Slettebak and A. Underhill. The members of this committee are to be thanked for their devotion to the organization of what turned out to be a very successful meeting. The program was organized on an observational approach, comprising sessions on photometry, polarization, spectroscopy, infrared observations, rotation and binarity, X-ray observations, UV observations and mass loss, and atmospheric models. Each session started with an invited summary paper, followed by a number of contributions. The different sessions were chaired by A. Feinstein, R. Sta1io, C. de Loore, Ch. Fehrenbach, J. P. Swings, C. Jaschek, A. Sapar, G. T. Traving, M. de Groot and H. G. Groth. Upon request of the Working Group., a special session was devoted to bibliographic problems and observing campaigns. The Dean of the Faculty for Physics 0.GBP the Ludwig-Maximilians-, Universitat welcomed the participants at the beginning of the Symposium. The meeting was closed by a summary talk, delivered by ~. P. Snow.

Originally published in 1989, this book provides a comprehensive account of how to handle astronomical data. Descriptions of data acquisition, handling, and interpretation are included. The advice starts with chapters on observatories and observations, followed by discussions on the archiving of data and its presentation in the literature. There are many useful suggestions on the nomenclature of astronomical objects, and descriptions of the astronomical catalogues. Three chapters concentrate on databases and astronomical data centres. Finally the author comments on publication and the growth of astronomical data. The clear advice given in this book will be of interest to professional astronomers and graduate students who handle data.

Despite more than one century of observational stellar spectroscopy, the resulting data is not available in an easily accessible format. The necessity of such basic information is greater than ever, because new wavelength regions (ultraviolet, infrared) are now accessible and modern receivers can only analyse short stretches of spectra, so that a careful pre-selection of strategic elements is mandatory. This book presents a summary of our knowledge of the behaviour of all chemical elements identified in stars, based on observations rather than on their interpretations. Whenever possible the behaviour is described quantitatively, with the help of equivalent widths in different types of stars, or different ionization stages, for both absorption and emission features. It will provide an authoritative reference book for the astrophysical community.

The classification of stars into their various types is one of the fundamental areas of astronomy. This book is a comprehensive handbook on the tools, methods and results of stellar taxonomy. Although this subject is firmly rooted in classical astronomy, vast improvements in observational techniques have transformed the subject and greatly broadened the wavelength regions available for study. The first six chapters describe modern methods of spectroscopic and photometric classification. The remaining nine chapters describe particular families of stars, progressing from the hottest to the coolest. Within each category a description is given of the normal type and all the peculiar stars. Throughout the emphasis is on the phenomenology of classification, rather than the underlying astrophysics. Both authors have devoted themselves to developing the international centre for stellar data at Strasbourg, which uniquely qualifies them to write this definitive handbook for professional astronomers.